When Cissie Brody was 15, fever swept the English countryside, killing her parents and leaving her to care for her nine younger siblings. Rejecting the offers of town officials to care for the children in the workhouse, Cissie is determined to keep the family together and moves them to a cave-like dwelling place on the Fells. One afternoon as she is returning home, she is attacked by Isabelle Fischel and raped by her twin brother, Lord Clive Fischel, later bearing him a son. Cissie refuses to give up the child until her sister faces imprisonment for a childish misdemeanour. It is through love and friendship that Cissie learns not to fear the world beyond the dwelling place.